[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":2289},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-what-is-the-crux":3,"blog-related-what-is-the-crux":98},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":77,"date":78,"description":79,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":82,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":84,"imageCreditUrl":85,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":87,"navigation":88,"path":89,"readTime":90,"seo":91,"stem":92,"tags":93,"__hash__":97},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-the-crux.md","What is the crux?","The Sendit Team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":70},"minimark",[10,14,19,22,25,29,32,35,51,54,58,61,64,67],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Every climb has a moment where it asks the most of you. That moment is the crux: the hardest move, or short sequence of moves, on a route or boulder problem. Everything else on the climb is, in a sense, getting to and from it.",[15,16,18],"h2",{"id":17},"the-hardest-bit-by-definition","The hardest bit, by definition",[11,20,21],{},"The word comes from the Latin for cross, and it carries the sense of a crossing point, the bit you have to get through. On a sport route the crux might be a single desperate reach between two crimps thirty metres up. On a boulder it could be the very first move off the ground, or a balance-y top-out where a fall is the last thing you want.",[11,23,24],{},"A climb can have more than one crux. Long routes often have a lower crux and an upper crux, and the upper one tends to feel harder simply because you arrive at it tired and pumped. Some climbs have a \"redpoint crux\", which is not the physically hardest move but the move you keep falling on because by the time you reach it your forearms are screaming. The grade of a climb is usually pinned to its crux, which is why a route can feel easy for most of its length and still earn a stiff number.",[15,26,28],{"id":27},"learning-to-spot-it-before-you-climb","Learning to spot it before you climb",[11,30,31],{},"Reading the crux from the ground is a skill worth building. Look for the places where the holds get smaller, further apart, or worse-angled. Steep sections, blank-looking panels, and gaps between good holds are all candidates. On a board climb you can often see the crux in the spacing of the lit holds and the angle of the wall.",[11,33,34],{},"A few tells that you have found the crux:",[36,37,38,42,45,48],"ul",{},[39,40,41],"li",{},"The holds visibly shrink, from jugs to crimps, or from positive edges to slopers.",[39,43,44],{},"There is a long reach with nothing obvious in between.",[39,46,47],{},"The feet run out and you have to commit to a high step, a heel hook, or a smear.",[39,49,50],{},"Everyone you watch falls in roughly the same place.",[11,52,53],{},"Spotting it early lets you plan. You can work out where your last good rest is, which hand needs to be on which hold, and whether you want to climb into it fast or slow.",[15,55,57],{"id":56},"why-naming-it-changes-how-you-climb","Why naming it changes how you climb",[11,59,60],{},"Here is the quiet benefit of the word. Once you can point at the crux and say \"that is the hard bit\", the rest of the climb stops feeling uniformly terrifying. You can relax through the easy ground, conserve energy, and save your focus for the moment that actually demands it.",[11,62,63],{},"Climbers who do not name the crux tend to climb everything at full intensity, which burns them out before they reach the part that matters. Climbers who do name it learn to breathe on the jugs, shake out before the hard move, and arrive at the crux with something left in the tank.",[11,65,66],{},"It also reframes failure. Falling off the crux is not failing the whole climb, it is failing one move, and one move is a much smaller thing to fix. You go back, work out the sequence, try a different foot, and suddenly the climb that felt impossible has a clear edge to chip away at.",[11,68,69],{},"So the takeaway is small but real. Find the crux, name it, and let it tell you where to spend your energy. The rest of the wall gets a lot friendlier once you know where the fight is.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":73},"",2,[74,75,76],{"id":17,"depth":72,"text":18},{"id":27,"depth":72,"text":28},{"id":56,"depth":72,"text":57},"Climbing terms","2026-04-03","The hardest move on a climb — how to spot it, and why naming it changes how you climb.",false,"md","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1516641380162-35b44adf4697?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A close-up of a climber's hands and chalk","Brook Anderson","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@brookanderson",null,{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-the-crux",4,{"title":5,"description":79},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-the-crux",[94,95,96],"terms","glossary","beginners","SyXtQLtncNiywqa3pLnGNhm6DDK4hvfMzceIla_34Kc",[99,188,235,320,407,494,572,646,721,795,1008,1095,1173,1345,1469,1690,1875,2086],{"id":100,"title":101,"author":6,"body":102,"category":77,"date":175,"description":176,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":177,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":178,"imageCreditUrl":179,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":180,"navigation":88,"path":181,"readTime":182,"seo":183,"stem":184,"tags":185,"__hash__":187},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fflash-onsight-redpoint-send-styles-explained.md","Flash, onsight, redpoint: send styles explained",{"type":8,"value":103,"toc":170},[104,107,111,114,141,144,148,151,154,157,160,164,167],[11,105,106],{},"Two climbers can both tick the same 7a, and the climbing world will treat those ascents very differently. The grade tells you how hard the moves are. The style tells you how the climb was done, and to a lot of climbers the style matters just as much.",[15,108,110],{"id":109},"the-main-styles-from-purest-to-most-worked","The main styles, from purest to most worked",[11,112,113],{},"The styles describe how much you knew and how many tries it took.",[36,115,116,123,129,135],{},[39,117,118,122],{},[119,120,121],"strong",{},"Onsight."," You climb it clean, first try, with no prior information at all. You have never watched anyone on it, you have had no beta, you have not even read about the moves. You read the rock as you go. This is generally considered the highest, purest style because nothing is given to you.",[39,124,125,128],{},[119,126,127],{},"Flash."," You climb it clean, first try, but you had some information beforehand. You watched someone do it, you got beta, you read a guidebook description, you knew where the crux was. Still first go, still no falls, just not blind.",[39,130,131,134],{},[119,132,133],{},"Redpoint."," You climb it clean from bottom to top, no falls and no resting on the rope, but only after practising the moves over multiple attempts. You might have spent a session, or a season, rehearsing the sequence before linking it.",[39,136,137,140],{},[119,138,139],{},"Pinkpoint."," An older term for a redpoint where the quickdraws were pre-placed rather than clipped on lead. These days most people just call it a redpoint and do not bother distinguishing.",[11,142,143],{},"For boulderers the words are simpler. A boulder problem done first try with no beta is an onsight, first try with beta is a flash, and any clean ascent after working the moves is just a send or a \"tick\".",[15,145,147],{"id":146},"why-style-matters-as-much-as-the-grade","Why style matters as much as the grade",[11,149,150],{},"If grade were everything, nobody would care how a route went down. But climbing has always valued the manner of the ascent, not just the difficulty.",[11,152,153],{},"Think about what each style asks of you. An onsight demands that you read holds you have never touched, find rests on the fly, and commit to moves you have not rehearsed. It tests your head and your route-reading as much as your fingers. A redpoint, by contrast, lets you remove all the uncertainty and pour everything into pure execution, which is how people climb at the absolute edge of their physical limit.",[11,155,156],{},"That difference is why a 6c+ onsight can feel like a bigger achievement than a 7a redpoint for the same climber. One was a leap into the unknown, the other was a polished performance. Neither is better in any absolute sense, they just reward different things.",[11,158,159],{},"Style also shapes how you train and what you chase. If you only ever redpoint, you can get very strong on familiar moves but freeze the moment you face something new. If you only ever onsight, you may never find out what you are physically capable of when the uncertainty is taken away. Most well-rounded climbers do a bit of both.",[15,161,163],{"id":162},"a-quiet-matter-of-honesty","A quiet matter of honesty",[11,165,166],{},"There is an unwritten rule underneath all this: you report your ascent honestly. If you fell once and pulled back on, it was not a flash. If you had beta, it was not an onsight, even if no one would ever know. The whole vocabulary only works because climbers are honest about it with themselves and each other.",[11,168,169],{},"Keeping a record of how each climb went, not just whether you ticked it, is where the real picture of your progress lives. Watching your onsight grade creep up tells you something that your hardest redpoint never will. Sendit lets you log the style alongside the grade, so over time you can see not just what you climbed, but how. And that, more than any single number, is the honest story of how you are improving.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":171},[172,173,174],{"id":109,"depth":72,"text":110},{"id":146,"depth":72,"text":147},{"id":162,"depth":72,"text":163},"2026-06-12","The words climbers use for how a route was done, and why the style matters as much as the grade.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1753210915829-7f67e32d14fc?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Oliver Schwendener","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@oliverschwendener",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fflash-onsight-redpoint-send-styles-explained",5,{"title":101,"description":176},"blog\u002Fflash-onsight-redpoint-send-styles-explained",[94,95,186],"grades","QLwe6BItGIZHnnEMy2NL_HxEjZ2_jnRyN9dFXpSuY8g",{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":189,"category":77,"date":78,"description":79,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":82,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":84,"imageCreditUrl":85,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":232,"navigation":88,"path":89,"readTime":90,"seo":233,"stem":92,"tags":234,"__hash__":97},{"type":8,"value":190,"toc":227},[191,193,195,197,199,201,203,205,215,217,219,221,223,225],[11,192,13],{},[15,194,18],{"id":17},[11,196,21],{},[11,198,24],{},[15,200,28],{"id":27},[11,202,31],{},[11,204,34],{},[36,206,207,209,211,213],{},[39,208,41],{},[39,210,44],{},[39,212,47],{},[39,214,50],{},[11,216,53],{},[15,218,57],{"id":56},[11,220,60],{},[11,222,63],{},[11,224,66],{},[11,226,69],{},{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":228},[229,230,231],{"id":17,"depth":72,"text":18},{"id":27,"depth":72,"text":28},{"id":56,"depth":72,"text":57},{},{"title":5,"description":79},[94,95,96],{"id":236,"title":237,"author":6,"body":238,"category":77,"date":307,"description":308,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":309,"imageAlt":310,"imageCredit":311,"imageCreditUrl":312,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":313,"navigation":88,"path":314,"readTime":90,"seo":315,"stem":316,"tags":317,"__hash__":319},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-campus-move.md","What is a campus move?",{"type":8,"value":239,"toc":302},[240,243,247,250,253,257,260,263,283,286,290,293,296,299],[11,241,242],{},"A campus move is climbing with your feet doing nothing. You move between handholds using only your arms, fingers and upper body, with your legs hanging dead beneath you. It is one of the most powerful, demanding things you can do on a wall, and it is also one of the easiest ways to hurt yourself if you rush into it.",[15,244,246],{"id":245},"climbing-with-no-feet","Climbing with no feet",[11,248,249],{},"In a normal sequence your feet carry a large share of your weight and generate a lot of the movement. Take them away and your fingers, forearms, shoulders and back have to do all of it. A campus move means releasing a hand, pulling and pushing through your upper body to launch towards the next hold, and catching it without any help from your legs.",[11,251,252],{},"You will see campus moves in two places. Sometimes a route or boulder problem genuinely demands one, the feet run out, or the only foothold is so bad it is faster to ignore it and throw between holds. More often, though, \"campusing\" refers to deliberate training on a dedicated piece of kit.",[15,254,256],{"id":255},"the-board-it-is-named-after","The board it is named after",[11,258,259],{},"The move is named after the campus board, a training tool of overhanging wood or plywood fitted with horizontal rungs at set spacings. The story behind it is part of climbing lore: a strong climber called Wolfgang Güllich is credited with building the first one at a university sports facility, a campus, in order to train the finger and pulling power he needed for an extremely hard route. The name stuck to both the board and the moves done on it.",[11,261,262],{},"On a campus board you climb the rungs with your hands only, feet hanging free. Typical drills include:",[36,264,265,271,277],{},[39,266,267,270],{},[119,268,269],{},"Ladders."," Moving up the rungs hand over hand, building basic contact strength and coordination.",[39,272,273,276],{},[119,274,275],{},"Bumps."," Moving one hand up several rungs in quick succession before bringing the other up to match.",[39,278,279,282],{},[119,280,281],{},"Max moves and double dynos."," Launching both hands or one hand to a distant rung to build explosive power.",[11,284,285],{},"It is brutally effective at developing the kind of snappy, dynamic finger and arm power that lets you stick hard moves. It is also notoriously hard on the body.",[15,287,289],{"id":288},"why-it-is-best-left-until-you-are-strong","Why it is best left until you are strong",[11,291,292],{},"Here is the warning that comes with every campus board, and it is worth taking seriously. Campusing loads your fingers, elbows and shoulders with your full body weight and added momentum, with none of the cushioning that footwork normally provides. The forces through your finger tendons and pulleys, and through the soft tissue around your elbows, are very high.",[11,294,295],{},"Newer climbers simply do not have the years of accumulated tendon and connective-tissue conditioning that this kind of training demands. Muscles strengthen relatively quickly, but tendons and ligaments adapt slowly, over months and years. That mismatch is exactly where injuries like finger pulley strains and elbow tendinopathy come from. Jumping onto a campus board before your body is ready is one of the more reliable ways to end up injured and off the wall for a long time.",[11,297,298],{},"The usual guidance is to leave campus training well alone until you have a solid base of climbing behind you, you are climbing at a respectable intermediate level, and your fingers are used to load. Even then, you warm up thoroughly, keep the volume low, and stop at the first hint of joint or tendon pain. Power training is a finishing touch, not a foundation.",[11,300,301],{},"So if you are early in your climbing, admire the campus board and walk past it. Build your strength through climbing, hangboarding sensibly, and time on the wall. When you are genuinely strong and well-conditioned, the campus board is a sharp tool for the last bit of power. Used too soon, it is mostly a fast track to the physio.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":303},[304,305,306],{"id":245,"depth":72,"text":246},{"id":255,"depth":72,"text":256},{"id":288,"depth":72,"text":289},"2026-03-20","Climbing with no feet, the board it is named after, and why it is best left until you are strong.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1605548109944-9040d0972bf5?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A climber high on an alpine ridge","Sylvain Mauroux","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@alpifree",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-campus-move",{"title":237,"description":308},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-a-campus-move",[94,95,318],"power","ypx4uyXU2A_-cqYs7iZ9nKlWkM16XlQoMz_lDFe_joI",{"id":321,"title":322,"author":6,"body":323,"category":77,"date":398,"description":399,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":400,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":84,"imageCreditUrl":85,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":401,"navigation":88,"path":402,"readTime":90,"seo":403,"stem":404,"tags":405,"__hash__":406},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-beta.md","What is beta?",{"type":8,"value":324,"toc":393},[325,328,332,335,338,341,345,348,351,354,380,384,387,390],[11,326,327],{},"Hang around any climbing wall for ten minutes and you will hear it: \"What's the beta?\" It is probably the single most-used word in the sport, and yet nobody ever stops to explain it. So here it is.",[15,329,331],{"id":330},"what-the-word-actually-means","What the word actually means",[11,333,334],{},"Beta is the information about how to climb something. The sequence of moves, where to put your hands and feet, which way to turn your hips, where the rest is, how to clip without pumping out. If a route is a problem to solve, the beta is the solution someone has worked out.",[11,336,337],{},"It can be as broad as \"it's all about the heel hook at the top\" or as precise as a move-by-move map: right hand to the crimp, bump left to the pinch, high step on the chip, drop knee, reach the jug. Two climbers can have completely different beta for the same climb because reach, finger strength and flexibility all change what works. Tall climbers reach past holds that shorter climbers have to use. That is normal, and it is why beta is a suggestion, not gospel.",[11,339,340],{},"The origin of the word is climbing folklore rather than fact. The most repeated story is that an old climber called Jack Mileski, working with Betamax video tapes, would offer to share his recorded \"beta\" of a route. Whether that is exactly true matters less than the fact that the word stuck.",[15,342,344],{"id":343},"sharing-it-asking-for-it-and-refusing-it","Sharing it, asking for it, and refusing it",[11,346,347],{},"There is a quiet etiquette around beta that newer climbers pick up over time. The core rule is simple: do not spray beta at someone who has not asked for it.",[11,349,350],{},"When you are working a problem, half the fun is figuring it out yourself. Having someone shout \"just throw to the sloper\" while you are mid-move can ruin the puzzle entirely. So before you offer advice, ask. A simple \"do you want beta or are you working it out?\" covers it.",[11,352,353],{},"A few norms worth knowing:",[36,355,356,362,368,374],{},[39,357,358,361],{},[119,359,360],{},"Onsight is sacred."," If someone is trying to climb a route with zero prior information, do not tell them anything, do not even let them watch you. Once they have seen beta, that attempt is no longer an onsight.",[39,363,364,367],{},[119,365,366],{},"Ask, do not assume."," \"Want a tip on the crux?\" gives the other person the choice.",[39,369,370,373],{},[119,371,372],{},"Offer it, do not insist."," If they wave you off, leave it. Some people learn by failing repeatedly, and that is their call.",[39,375,376,379],{},[119,377,378],{},"Credit good beta."," If someone hands you the unlock, a \"cheers, that was the move\" goes a long way.",[15,381,383],{"id":382},"beta-is-a-starting-point-not-the-truth","Beta is a starting point, not the truth",[11,385,386],{},"The trap with beta is treating it as the only way up. You watch a strong climber float a section with a slick heel hook, copy it exactly, and fall off because their hips are more flexible than yours. The beta was real, it just was not yours.",[11,388,389],{},"Good climbers take beta and then adapt it. They keep the parts that fit their body and quietly rewrite the parts that do not. Sometimes the beta everyone uses is not even the best one, and finding your own sequence is its own small victory.",[11,391,392],{},"So the next time someone asks \"what's the beta?\", you know exactly what they want: the shape of the solution. Hand it over if they want it, keep quiet if they do not, and remember that the best beta is the version you make your own.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":394},[395,396,397],{"id":330,"depth":72,"text":331},{"id":343,"depth":72,"text":344},{"id":382,"depth":72,"text":383},"2026-02-20","The single most-used climbing word, what it means, and the etiquette of sharing and asking for it.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1612555909797-73c63936fbf6?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-beta",{"title":322,"description":399},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-beta",[94,95,96],"q1emkjQkGSxh7G5iKk-MY_KGwehS3SEFQTyig1eKNjM",{"id":408,"title":409,"author":6,"body":410,"category":77,"date":482,"description":483,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":484,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":485,"imageCreditUrl":486,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":487,"navigation":88,"path":488,"readTime":90,"seo":489,"stem":490,"tags":491,"__hash__":493},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-sloper.md","What is a sloper?",{"type":8,"value":411,"toc":477},[412,415,419,422,425,428,432,435,438,464,467,471,474],[11,413,414],{},"Some holds you grab. A sloper you do not grab so much as lean on and pray. They are the smooth, rounded blobs with no edge, no lip, nothing for your fingers to curl around, and to a newer climber they feel completely hopeless. The good news is that slopers reward technique far more than strength, and once it clicks they stop being a wall.",[15,416,418],{"id":417},"a-hold-with-nothing-to-hold","A hold with nothing to hold",[11,420,421],{},"A sloper is a rounded hold with no positive edge. Where a crimp gives you a sharp lip to pull on and a jug gives you a deep pocket to wrap your hand into, a sloper gives you only a curved surface. There is no in-cut, nothing your fingers can hook behind. All you have is the friction between your skin and the hold.",[11,423,424],{},"That is the whole secret of the sloper: it works on friction, not grip. Your contact with the hold depends on how much surface area your hand makes against it, and crucially, on the direction you pull. Slopers are unforgiving about angle. Pull in the wrong direction and your hand slides straight off. Pull in the right one and the same hold suddenly feels solid.",[11,426,427],{},"This is why they feel hopeless at first. Beginners instinctively try to crush a sloper like a crimp, fingers bent, pulling outwards, and of course it greases off. The hold is not designed to be squeezed. It is designed to be smeared with the whole hand.",[15,429,431],{"id":430},"how-body-position-makes-them-stick","How body position makes them stick",[11,433,434],{},"The trick to slopers lives in your body, not your fingers. The aim is to get your weight hanging directly below the hold so that you are pulling straight down through it, not out from it.",[11,436,437],{},"A few things that turn a hopeless sloper into a usable one:",[36,439,440,446,452,458],{},[39,441,442,445],{},[119,443,444],{},"Drop your hips and stay low."," Getting your centre of gravity under the hold changes the angle of pull from outwards to downwards, which is exactly what a sloper wants.",[39,447,448,451],{},[119,449,450],{},"Maximise skin contact."," Spread your fingers, lay your whole palm and the meat of your thumb onto the hold, and use as much surface as you can. More contact means more friction.",[39,453,454,457],{},[119,455,456],{},"Keep your arm straight and shoulder engaged."," A bent arm pulls outwards and peels you off. A long arm with an active shoulder keeps the force pointing down.",[39,459,460,463],{},[119,461,462],{},"Stay still once you are on it."," Slopers punish fidgeting. Find the position, commit, move precisely to the next thing.",[11,465,466],{},"Footwork matters enormously here. Because the hold gives you so little, your feet have to do real work. High, precise feet let you press your weight down through the sloper rather than swinging out from it. Often the move into a sloper is about generating just enough momentum to land your hand softly on top, then settling your weight before the friction can break.",[15,468,470],{"id":469},"friction-conditions-and-patience","Friction, conditions and patience",[11,472,473],{},"Slopers are also the holds most affected by conditions. Warm, sweaty hands and humid air kill friction, which is why a sloper that felt fine in the morning can feel like glass by mid-afternoon. Chalk helps, cool dry skin helps more, and so does a quick brush of the hold to clear off the grease from earlier climbers. Serious sloper sessions live and die by good conditions.",[11,475,476],{},"If you struggle with them, that is normal and it is worth chasing rather than avoiding. Slopers force you to learn body tension, hip position and patient, precise movement, the exact skills that make every other style of climbing better too. Seek out the rounded, grabless holds you usually walk past, drop your hips, lay your whole hand on, and trust the friction. They go from hopeless to satisfying faster than almost any other hold type.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":478},[479,480,481],{"id":417,"depth":72,"text":418},{"id":430,"depth":72,"text":431},{"id":469,"depth":72,"text":470},"2025-12-12","The rounded holds with nothing to grab, why they feel hopeless, and how body position makes them stick.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1718872140639-e2420e37cea2?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Liana S","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@cherstve_pechivo",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-sloper",{"title":409,"description":483},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-a-sloper",[94,95,492],"grip","NU7P_plBmgtfo5L05sDyPZoGypHoeAXEUChfMcrGVgc",{"id":495,"title":496,"author":6,"body":497,"category":77,"date":560,"description":561,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":562,"imageAlt":310,"imageCredit":563,"imageCreditUrl":564,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":565,"navigation":88,"path":566,"readTime":90,"seo":567,"stem":568,"tags":569,"__hash__":571},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-sit-start.md","What is a sit start?",{"type":8,"value":498,"toc":555},[499,503,506,509,513,516,519,522,542,546,549,552],[15,500,502],{"id":501},"starting-from-the-ground-up","Starting from the ground up",[11,504,505],{},"A sit start does exactly what it says. Instead of beginning a boulder problem standing, with both hands on the first holds and your feet already on the rock, you start sitting on the ground. You put your hands on the designated starting holds, plant your backside on the floor, lift your feet onto whatever footholds are there, and only then are you allowed to pull on and climb.",[11,507,508],{},"In a guidebook you will see this written as \"SDS\" — sit-down start — or sometimes just \"sit start\". Often a problem has two versions: the stand start, which begins from a comfortable standing position, and the sit start, which adds a move or two of harder climbing at the bottom and usually carries a higher grade. The Font classic Mécanique Élémentaire, for example, has both, and the sit is the line everyone actually queues for.",[15,510,512],{"id":511},"why-bother-sitting-in-the-dirt","Why bother sitting in the dirt?",[11,514,515],{},"It comes down to fairness and length. On many blocs the obvious standing holds are at chest or head height, which means a tall climber can practically walk onto the problem while a shorter one is fully extended just to start. Dropping the start to the ground removes a lot of that height advantage and gives everyone the same low first move.",[11,517,518],{},"It also adds climbing. A sit start typically means a powerful pull off the ground from a compressed, scrunched position — knees up by your chest, hips low, often a hard first move to get your weight moving upward. That bottom section is frequently the crux. Plenty of boulderers can do every move of the stand version and still spend weeks failing to link the sit.",[11,520,521],{},"A few things change once you commit to the floor:",[36,523,524,530,536],{},[39,525,526,529],{},[119,527,528],{},"Core matters more."," Pulling off the ground with your feet high and your body folded loads your midsection hard before you have any momentum.",[39,531,532,535],{},[119,533,534],{},"The start holds are stricter."," You have to establish on the official starting holds with feet off the ground, so there is less room to cheat your way into a better position.",[39,537,538,541],{},[119,539,540],{},"Linking is the real challenge."," Doing the sit moves and the stand moves is one thing. Doing them in one continuous go, arriving at the stand holds already tired, is another.",[15,543,545],{"id":544},"reading-and-logging-it-correctly","Reading and logging it correctly",[11,547,548],{},"When you tick a problem, be honest about which version you did. Climbing the stand start of a V5 sit-start problem is not the same achievement, and most people grade the two separately for good reason. If a topo lists a sit start, the implication is that the established way of doing the line is from the ground.",[11,550,551],{},"There is no shame in starting standing while you work the moves. Many of us learn the upper section first, then go back and battle the sit until it links. Just record what you actually sent. When you keep a log of your problems, noting \"stand\" or \"SDS\" against each one keeps your tick list meaningful and saves the awkward moment months later when you cannot remember whether you ever really did the full thing.",[11,553,554],{},"The next time you walk up to a bloc and someone is brushing chalk off a low pair of crimps and lowering themselves into the dirt, you will know exactly what they are about to attempt.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":556},[557,558,559],{"id":501,"depth":72,"text":502},{"id":511,"depth":72,"text":512},{"id":544,"depth":72,"text":545},"2025-11-07","Why boulderers start sitting down, what \"SDS\" means in a guidebook, and how it changes a problem.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1469026140142-cb239ea68152?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Mathias Jensen","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@mathiasjensen",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-sit-start",{"title":496,"description":561},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-a-sit-start",[94,95,570],"bouldering","wtppuTNx_6Gl2Uimaxy42g2Ay8DA-O0YdgwHWG3AimQ",{"id":573,"title":574,"author":6,"body":575,"category":77,"date":635,"description":636,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":637,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":638,"imageCreditUrl":639,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":640,"navigation":88,"path":641,"readTime":90,"seo":642,"stem":643,"tags":644,"__hash__":645},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-send-and-what-is-a-project.md","What is a send? And what is a project?",{"type":8,"value":576,"toc":630},[577,580,584,587,590,593,597,600,603,606,617,621,624,627],[11,578,579],{},"Two words you will hear over and over at the wall: send and project. They are opposites, in a way. One is the finish line and the other is the long road to it. Together they describe most of what a climber spends their time doing.",[15,581,583],{"id":582},"what-it-means-to-send","What it means to send",[11,585,586],{},"To send a climb is to complete it cleanly, from the start to the finish, without falling and without resting on the rope or hanging on a hold to recover. You start, you climb, you finish, in one continuous go. That is a send.",[11,588,589],{},"The word almost certainly comes from \"ascend\", shortened over the years into something you can shout. When someone tops out a boulder problem and their mates yell \"send it\", they mean finish it, in control, no falls. A clean lap on a route where you sat on the rope to rest is not a send, it is a \"dog up\" or a \"lap with hangs\", and most climbers will be honest about the difference.",[11,591,592],{},"Sending matters because it draws a clean line under the work. There is a real distinction between having done all the moves separately and having linked them into one unbroken climb. Anyone who has done every move on a problem but never put them together knows that linking is its own challenge. The send is the moment the whole thing becomes yours.",[15,594,596],{"id":595},"what-a-project-is","What a project is",[11,598,599],{},"A project, often shortened to \"proj\", is a climb you cannot do yet but are working towards. It is too hard to send right now, so you return to it, session after session, chipping away. You figure out the beta, refine the sequence, get the moves dialled, build the strength, and slowly the impossible starts to feel merely hard.",[11,601,602],{},"Projecting is how climbers push their personal limit. The grade you can flash is usually well below the grade you can project, because a project gives you the luxury of practising every move until it is automatic. People talk about a climb being \"a project for the season\" or even \"a multi-year proj\", and there is no shame in that. Some of the most satisfying sends are the ones that took months.",[11,604,605],{},"A few things worth knowing about projecting:",[36,607,608,611,614],{},[39,609,610],{},"It is normal to fail on a project far more than you succeed. That is the deal.",[39,612,613],{},"Working the moves out of order is fine. You do not have to climb top to bottom while projecting.",[39,615,616],{},"A project teaches you things a quick tick never will, about your weaknesses and your patience.",[15,618,620],{"id":619},"the-quiet-satisfaction-in-each","The quiet satisfaction in each",[11,622,623],{},"These two words carry different flavours of joy. A send is a clean, sharp hit of completion, the matter settled in one go. A project is a slower burn, the long relationship with a piece of rock that gives in only when you have earned it.",[11,625,626],{},"The best feeling in climbing is often the send that ends a long project. You have fallen off the crux a dozen times, sworn at it, gone home defeated, come back. Then one day everything lines up, your fingers hold, your feet stay, and you clip the chains or slap the top. That moment lands differently because of all the failed goes behind it.",[11,628,629],{},"So when you hear someone say they sent their project, you now know the full weight of it. They finished a thing they could not finish before, and they did it cleanly. Keeping track of what you are projecting, and the day each one finally goes, turns those scattered sessions into a story you can look back on.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":631},[632,633,634],{"id":582,"depth":72,"text":583},{"id":595,"depth":72,"text":596},{"id":619,"depth":72,"text":620},"2025-08-08","Two words you will hear constantly, plus the quiet satisfaction each one carries.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1675191863955-8b0dee9663b3?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Mahir Velani","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@mahir009",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-send-and-what-is-a-project",{"title":574,"description":636},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-a-send-and-what-is-a-project",[94,95,96],"PNgx5sy6NKMya_AA02TJfUs0-e0RxOYJrxih0bRZAoo",{"id":647,"title":648,"author":6,"body":649,"category":77,"date":709,"description":710,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":711,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":712,"imageCreditUrl":713,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":714,"navigation":88,"path":715,"readTime":90,"seo":716,"stem":717,"tags":718,"__hash__":720},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-dyno.md","What is a dyno?",{"type":8,"value":650,"toc":704},[651,654,658,661,664,667,671,674,677,688,692,695,698,701],[11,652,653],{},"A dyno is the most photogenic move in climbing: the moment a climber launches off the wall entirely, hands and feet leaving at once, flying through the air to catch a hold out of static reach. It looks like the hardest thing in the world. Often it is not.",[15,655,657],{"id":656},"a-jump-with-a-target","A jump, with a target",[11,659,660],{},"The word is short for \"dynamic\", and it sits at the far end of the dynamic-to-static spectrum. A static move is one you could do slowly, in control, pausing halfway if you wanted. A dynamic move uses momentum, you generate speed and ride it to the next hold. A dyno is the extreme version: a full jump where, for a moment, you are not touching the wall at all.",[11,662,663],{},"The mechanics are roughly the same as any jump. You drop your hips, load your legs, and explode upwards, while your hands pull and then push off to add height. At the top of the movement, the \"deadpoint\", you are weightless for a split second. That is the moment to catch the target hold, when there is no upward or downward force fighting you. Slap too early and you get yanked off, slap too late and you are already falling.",[11,665,666],{},"Dynos come in a few flavours. A straight-up dyno goes vertically to a hold above you. A lateral dyno sends you sideways across a gap. A double dyno catches the target with both hands at once, while a single is a one-handed catch that then needs a quick match. Some are to big juggy holds, which are forgiving, and some are to crimps or slopers, which are brutal because you have to stick a bad hold while still moving.",[15,668,670],{"id":669},"when-the-jump-is-the-answer","When the jump is the answer",[11,672,673],{},"Setters and routes use dynos for a reason. Sometimes the next hold is genuinely too far to reach statically, so a jump is the only way. Other times a static version exists but the dyno is faster and saves energy. And occasionally a dyno is set purely for the spectacle, because it is fun to throw for something and stick it.",[11,675,676],{},"You will know a dyno is the intended move when:",[36,678,679,682,685],{},[39,680,681],{},"The holds are spaced beyond a controlled reach, even at full stretch.",[39,683,684],{},"There is a big, obvious target hold positioned to be caught on the fly.",[39,686,687],{},"The lower holds are good enough to generate power from but the gap above is blank.",[15,689,691],{"id":690},"why-it-looks-harder-than-it-is","Why it looks harder than it is",[11,693,694],{},"Here is the thing that surprises people. Dynos look terrifying and feel intimidating, but a well-set dyno to a good hold is frequently easier than the precise, balance-y static sequence it replaces. The fear is mostly in the commitment, the moment of letting go of the wall entirely.",[11,696,697],{},"The skill is less about raw power than about timing and aim. Beginners tend to throw with their arms and stare at their feet. The fix is to load through the legs, drive the hips up, and lock your eyes on the target hold the whole way. Where you look is where you go. Commit fully too, a half-hearted dyno almost never sticks because you bleed the power to hesitate.",[11,699,700],{},"The catch matters as much as the launch. As your hands hit the hold, you want to absorb the swing, let your body cut loose under the bar if it needs to, and hang on through the barn-door that often follows. That swing is normal. Bracing for it rather than fighting it is what keeps you on.",[11,702,703],{},"So the next time you see one and your stomach drops, remember: a dyno is a jump with a target, and your legs already know how to jump. The hard part is trusting them enough to leave the wall.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":705},[706,707,708],{"id":656,"depth":72,"text":657},{"id":669,"depth":72,"text":670},{"id":690,"depth":72,"text":691},"2025-06-27","The all-points-off jump, when it is the answer, and why it looks harder than it often is.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1620567881271-095f2be9ecde?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","AJ Hemink","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@ajhemink",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-dyno",{"title":648,"description":710},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-a-dyno",[94,95,719],"dynamic","G35F_aWigIzOVaR4-COKBNg41XfvwUR4d8sHAg9TC8M",{"id":722,"title":723,"author":6,"body":724,"category":77,"date":784,"description":785,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":786,"imageAlt":310,"imageCredit":787,"imageCreditUrl":788,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":789,"navigation":88,"path":790,"readTime":90,"seo":791,"stem":792,"tags":793,"__hash__":794},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-sandbagging.md","What is sandbagging?",{"type":8,"value":725,"toc":779},[726,729,733,736,739,742,746,749,752,755,766,770,773,776],[11,727,728],{},"You walk up to a climb graded well within your ability, expect a comfortable tick, and instead get utterly shut down on a move that has no business being that hard. Congratulations, you have been sandbagged. A sandbag is a climb that is much harder than its grade suggests, and dealing with them is part of every climber's education.",[15,730,732],{"id":731},"the-grade-that-lies-to-you","The grade that lies to you",[11,734,735],{},"Grades are meant to tell you roughly how hard a climb is, so you can pick something at the right level. A sandbag breaks that promise. It carries a number that looks friendly but climbs like something a couple of grades stiffer. The classic example is the old-school V2 in a guidebook that feels like a solid V5 to anyone who tries it, or the \"moderate\" trad route that turns out to be a fight from the first move.",[11,737,738],{},"Sandbags happen for a few reasons. Sometimes a grade was given long ago by climbers who were simply very good and very tough, and standards or expectations have shifted since. Sometimes a climb suits a particular height or style, so it felt easy to whoever graded it and brutal to everyone built differently. And sometimes, frankly, the grade was undercooked on purpose, as a kind of trap for the unwary.",[11,740,741],{},"The word itself comes from outside climbing, the idea of a heavy sandbag you do not see coming. To sandbag someone can also mean deliberately downplaying a climb's difficulty, telling a mate that the route is \"totally your level\" while knowing full well it will spit them off. That brings us to the tradition.",[15,743,745],{"id":744},"a-tradition-half-mischief-and-half-pride","A tradition, half mischief and half pride",[11,747,748],{},"Sandbagging has a long and slightly mischievous history in climbing culture. Certain crags and areas wear their stiff grading like a badge of honour. Locals take quiet pride in the fact that their grades are \"honest\" or \"old school\", which is often code for harder than they look. Turn up as a visitor expecting soft numbers and you will get a humbling.",[11,750,751],{},"There is gentle gatekeeping baked into it too. The seasoned climber who sends a newcomer up a \"nice easy warm-up\" that turns out to be a sandbag is taking part in a tradition as old as the sport. It is usually affectionate ribbing rather than malice, a way of saying the grade is not the whole story and you should pay attention to the climbing, not the number.",[11,753,754],{},"You will run into sandbags most often in:",[36,756,757,760,763],{},[39,758,759],{},"Older guidebooks and historic crags where grading conventions predate modern norms.",[39,761,762],{},"Areas famous for a particular gritty, technical or runout style that the grade does not capture.",[39,764,765],{},"The deliberate suggestion of a friend who is enjoying themselves at your expense.",[15,767,769],{"id":768},"how-to-take-it-in-good-humour","How to take it in good humour",[11,771,772],{},"The healthiest response to a sandbag is a shrug and a grin. Grades are useful but they are not gospel, and treating them as a precise measure of your worth is a quick route to frustration. A sandbag is a reminder that the number on the page is one person's opinion, filtered through their body, their era and their sense of humour.",[11,774,775],{},"There is real value in it, too. Getting shut down on an \"easy\" climb exposes the gaps in your climbing more honestly than ticking soft grades ever will. The technical, awkward, height-dependent moves that sandbags throw at you are exactly the ones that make you a more complete climber. Many people who travel to famously stiff areas come back better for the beating.",[11,777,778],{},"So when you find yourself flailing on something that should have been straightforward, do not take it personally and do not let it dent your confidence. Laugh about it, learn the move, and file the climb away as one that bites. Then, when a friend asks for a recommendation, you will know exactly which \"easy classic\" to point them towards.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":780},[781,782,783],{"id":731,"depth":72,"text":732},{"id":744,"depth":72,"text":745},{"id":768,"depth":72,"text":769},"2025-06-06","The grade that is harder than it claims, the tradition behind it, and how to take it in good humour.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1520208422220-d12a3c588e6c?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Jackman Chiu","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@jackmanchiu",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-sandbagging",{"title":723,"description":785},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-sandbagging",[94,95,186],"6dWpoUuYxtgB2w9ABf0LPOEbTVuCblXO6mezxJsbyr8",{"id":796,"title":797,"author":6,"body":798,"category":77,"date":995,"description":996,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":997,"imageAlt":310,"imageCredit":998,"imageCreditUrl":999,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1000,"navigation":88,"path":1001,"readTime":1002,"seo":1003,"stem":1004,"tags":1005,"__hash__":1007},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fa-climbing-slang-glossary.md","A climbing slang glossary",{"type":8,"value":799,"toc":988},[800,804,807,811,814,846,850,853,885,889,892,946,950,953,985],[15,801,803],{"id":802},"the-language-of-the-wall","The language of the wall",[11,805,806],{},"Walk into any climbing gym and within five minutes you will hear a sentence that sounds like English but isn't. People get beached, send their project, throw for a jug, and complain about being gripped. None of it is in the dictionary, and most of it gets passed down by overhearing rather than asking. Here is a friendly tour of the words that come up most, so you can stop nodding politely and start joining in.",[15,808,810],{"id":809},"the-essentials","The essentials",[11,812,813],{},"A few terms do most of the heavy lifting in everyday climbing chat.",[36,815,816,822,828,834,840],{},[39,817,818,821],{},[119,819,820],{},"Send"," — to climb a route or problem cleanly from start to finish without falling or resting on the rope. \"I sent it\" is the phrase everyone is chasing.",[39,823,824,827],{},[119,825,826],{},"Project"," — a climb that is currently too hard for you, that you keep coming back to. Used as a verb too: you can project a route over many sessions.",[39,829,830,833],{},[119,831,832],{},"Beta"," — information about how to do the moves. \"What's the beta for the crux?\" The opposite is a flash, where you do a climb first try having only been given beta, versus an onsight, where you had no information at all.",[39,835,836,839],{},[119,837,838],{},"Pumped"," — when your forearms fill with blood and acid and your grip starts to fail. Severe cases end in a \"screaming barfies\" of pain when blood returns to cold, pumped hands.",[39,841,842,845],{},[119,843,844],{},"Crux"," — the hardest single move or section of a climb.",[15,847,849],{"id":848},"states-of-mind-and-body","States of mind and body",[11,851,852],{},"Climbing has a rich vocabulary for the way it makes you feel, most of it unflattering.",[36,854,855,861,867,873,879],{},[39,856,857,860],{},[119,858,859],{},"Gripped"," — frozen with fear, usually high above your last bit of protection. A close cousin of being \"spooked\".",[39,862,863,866],{},[119,864,865],{},"Beached"," — stuck on top of a boulder or move, flailing like a fish, unable to commit to standing up. The mantle that goes wrong.",[39,868,869,872],{},[119,870,871],{},"Chuffed"," — genuinely pleased, often after a hard send. British understatement at its finest.",[39,874,875,878],{},[119,876,877],{},"Sandbagged"," — given a grade that is far too soft for how hard the climb actually is. Older crags, particularly on gritstone, are famously sandbagged.",[39,880,881,884],{},[119,882,883],{},"Spray"," — unsolicited beta or boasting. Someone who \"sprays beta\" tells you how to do a climb you didn't ask about.",[15,886,888],{"id":887},"moves-and-holds","Moves and holds",[11,890,891],{},"The physical vocabulary is where it gets technical, and getting it right makes beta far easier to share.",[36,893,894,912,922,928,934,940],{},[39,895,896,899,900,903,904,907,908,911],{},[119,897,898],{},"Crimp"," — a small edge held with bent fingers. A ",[119,901,902],{},"sloper"," is a rounded, holdless-feeling blob you grip with open friction. A ",[119,905,906],{},"jug"," is a big, positive hold you can wrap your whole hand around. A ",[119,909,910],{},"pinch"," is squeezed between thumb and fingers.",[39,913,914,917,918,921],{},[119,915,916],{},"Heel hook"," — using the heel as an extra hand, hooked over an edge or hold to pull yourself in. A ",[119,919,920],{},"toe hook"," does the same with the top of the foot.",[39,923,924,927],{},[119,925,926],{},"Drop knee"," — turning a knee inward and down to twist your hip into the wall, taking weight off your arms.",[39,929,930,933],{},[119,931,932],{},"Flag"," — sticking a leg out to one side, not on a hold, purely to balance against a swing or barn-door.",[39,935,936,939],{},[119,937,938],{},"Dyno"," — a dynamic move where both hands and usually both feet leave the wall as you jump for a hold.",[39,941,942,945],{},[119,943,944],{},"Smear"," — pressing the sole of your shoe flat against blank rock and trusting the friction.",[15,947,949],{"id":948},"outdoors-and-gear","Outdoors and gear",[11,951,952],{},"A handful more come up once you leave the gym.",[36,954,955,969,979],{},[39,956,957,960,961,964,965,968],{},[119,958,959],{},"Crag"," — an outdoor climbing area. A ",[119,962,963],{},"bloc"," is a single boulder. ",[119,966,967],{},"Topping out"," means climbing over the top rather than lowering off.",[39,970,971,974,975,978],{},[119,972,973],{},"Whipper"," — a long lead fall. ",[119,976,977],{},"Take"," is what you shout when you want the belayer to hold you on the rope.",[39,980,981,984],{},[119,982,983],{},"Beta video"," — footage of someone doing the climb, increasingly how people learn outdoor problems before they visit.",[11,986,987],{},"You will pick up the rest by osmosis. Climbers love to talk, and there is no faster way to learn the slang than by getting pumped, getting beached, and being chuffed when it finally goes. Keeping a log of your sends, with a note of the beta that worked, turns all this vocabulary into something genuinely useful the next time you tie in.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":989},[990,991,992,993,994],{"id":802,"depth":72,"text":803},{"id":809,"depth":72,"text":810},{"id":848,"depth":72,"text":849},{"id":887,"depth":72,"text":888},{"id":948,"depth":72,"text":949},"2025-04-04","Pumped, beached, chuffed, gripped — a friendly A-to-Z of the words you will hear at the wall.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1522527414937-8b7363e8701d?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Charlie Hammond","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@charlieh",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fa-climbing-slang-glossary",7,{"title":797,"description":996},"blog\u002Fa-climbing-slang-glossary",[94,95,1006],"reference","FsAo1gcPuHjSFWswW6dfJCxX70MWUzxz8SkQHkA21II",{"id":1009,"title":1010,"author":6,"body":1011,"category":77,"date":1083,"description":1084,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":1085,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":1086,"imageCreditUrl":1087,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1088,"navigation":88,"path":1089,"readTime":90,"seo":1090,"stem":1091,"tags":1092,"__hash__":1094},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-smearing.md","What is smearing?",{"type":8,"value":1012,"toc":1078},[1013,1016,1020,1023,1026,1029,1033,1036,1062,1065,1069,1072,1075],[11,1014,1015],{},"Smearing is the art of standing on nothing. No edge, no foothold, no nubbin to perch on, just the rubber of your shoe pressed flat against blank rock or wall, held there by friction alone. It feels like it should not work, and yet on slabs and featureless faces it is often the only way up.",[15,1017,1019],{"id":1018},"standing-on-friction","Standing on friction",[11,1021,1022],{},"When you smear, you place the sole of your shoe flat against the surface and trust the grip between rubber and rock to hold your weight. There is no hold doing the work, the friction is the hold. The more rubber you can get in contact with the surface, and the more weight you can press through it perpendicular to the rock, the more it grips.",[11,1024,1025],{},"This is the opposite of edging, where you stand on the precise edge of a small foothold using the stiff side of your shoe. Edging is about precision on a defined feature. Smearing is about surface area and pressure on no feature at all. On low-angle slab climbing you will smear constantly, because the wall is too smooth to offer edges and the friction is all you have got.",[11,1027,1028],{},"The physics is simple enough. Friction holds you when the force pressing your shoe into the rock is high and the force trying to slide it off is low. So everything about good smearing is about pushing your weight straight into the wall rather than letting it drag down the surface.",[15,1030,1032],{"id":1031},"making-blank-rock-hold-you","Making blank rock hold you",[11,1034,1035],{},"Getting a smear to stick is mostly about body position and faith. A few things that make the difference:",[36,1037,1038,1044,1050,1056],{},[39,1039,1040,1043],{},[119,1041,1042],{},"Drop your heel."," Lowering your heel below your toe flexes your ankle and presses more of the shoe's rubber flat against the wall. A high heel puts you on your toe tip with almost no contact.",[39,1045,1046,1049],{},[119,1047,1048],{},"Keep your weight over your feet."," Lean in towards the wall and you peel your shoe off it. Stay stacked over your feet, hips out, and you press straight down into the friction. On a slab this means trusting your feet enough to stand up over them.",[39,1051,1052,1055],{},[119,1053,1054],{},"Be still and smooth."," Once a smear is set, do not readjust it. Every little shuffle risks breaking the friction. Place it, weight it, move off it cleanly.",[39,1057,1058,1061],{},[119,1059,1060],{},"Use clean, warm rubber."," A dirty or cold sole grips far worse. A quick wipe of the shoe and a softer, grippier rubber compound both help.",[11,1063,1064],{},"The mental side is the hard part. Smearing asks you to commit your full weight to something that looks like it cannot possibly hold, and the instinct is to keep weight in your hands and hover tentatively over your feet. That hesitation is exactly what makes smears slip, because a half-weighted foot does not press hard enough to grip. Counterintuitively, the way to make a smear stick is to commit harder to it.",[15,1066,1068],{"id":1067},"learning-to-trust-your-feet","Learning to trust your feet",[11,1070,1071],{},"The fastest way to get good at smearing is to deliberately stand on bad footholds and smears with your hands barely on the wall. Find an easy slab, take your hands off the good holds, and make your feet do everything. It feels precarious and that is the point, you are teaching your body that the friction is real and your shoes can take it.",[11,1073,1074],{},"Conditions matter here too. Smearing on a cool, dry day is a different experience from smearing in damp heat, when both your shoes and the rock feel greasy. Slab climbers chase good friction the way sloper climbers do, because their feet depend on it entirely.",[11,1076,1077],{},"Smearing rewards patience, balance and a willingness to trust rubber over instinct. It is the footwork skill that quietly underpins all slab and friction climbing, and the moment you genuinely believe your feet will hold, blank rock stops being a barrier and becomes just another surface to stand on.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":1079},[1080,1081,1082],{"id":1018,"depth":72,"text":1019},{"id":1031,"depth":72,"text":1032},{"id":1067,"depth":72,"text":1068},"2025-01-24","Standing on nothing but friction. How smearing works and how to trust your feet on blank rock.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1537367152948-007144bca9f6?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Inja Pavlić","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@inja_jeki",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-smearing",{"title":1010,"description":1084},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-smearing",[94,95,1093],"footwork","Ak_B-xRgsIAIFA4Czd7sa2GipdKW_C4e97fnWWJX1Tg",{"id":1096,"title":1097,"author":6,"body":1098,"category":77,"date":1161,"description":1162,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":1163,"imageAlt":83,"imageCredit":1164,"imageCreditUrl":1165,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1166,"navigation":88,"path":1167,"readTime":90,"seo":1168,"stem":1169,"tags":1170,"__hash__":1172},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-gaston.md","What is a gaston?",{"type":8,"value":1099,"toc":1156},[1100,1103,1107,1110,1113,1116,1120,1123,1126,1137,1140,1144,1147,1150,1153],[11,1101,1102],{},"Most holds you pull towards your body. A gaston is the awkward exception: a hold you push away from yourself, sideways, with your elbow out and your thumb pointing down, as though you are trying to prise apart a pair of lift doors. It feels weird and weak the first time, and then you realise how often it is the only thing that works.",[15,1104,1106],{"id":1105},"a-grip-that-pushes-not-pulls","A grip that pushes, not pulls",[11,1108,1109],{},"A gaston is defined by direction. Your hand is on a vertical or near-vertical edge, the kind of side-pull you would normally lean away from, but instead of pulling it towards you, you push outwards against it. Thumb down, fingers pointing roughly towards your own midline, elbow flared out to the side.",[11,1111,1112],{},"Compare it to a side-pull and the difference is clear. With a side-pull you hang off the edge and lean your body the opposite way, using your weight against the hold. With a gaston you are pressing into the hold, generating outward force from your shoulder and arm. It is the same edge, used in opposite directions. The gaston is the one where your arm is doing the harder, more isolating job.",[11,1114,1115],{},"The name, fittingly, comes from climbing history. It is widely attributed to the French climber Gaston Rébuffat, and the move is sometimes still called a \"comici\" or simply a \"shoulder press\" depending on who you ask. The lift-door image is the one that sticks though, because that pushing-apart motion is exactly what your two hands often end up doing.",[15,1117,1119],{"id":1118},"when-the-gaston-appears","When the gaston appears",[11,1121,1122],{},"You reach for a gaston when the hold faces the wrong way to pull on it. The classic situation is a vertical edge sitting on the inside of where your body is, so pulling it towards you would just drag you sideways off the wall. Pushing it lets you stabilise and move past it instead.",[11,1124,1125],{},"Common moments a gaston shows up:",[36,1127,1128,1131,1134],{},[39,1129,1130],{},"A vertical edge between your hands that you press against to hold your body in place while you reach with the other hand.",[39,1132,1133],{},"A hold positioned slightly behind you on a steep wall, where pulling would barn-door you off and pushing keeps you pinned.",[39,1135,1136],{},"Sequences where two opposing holds let you press outwards with both hands at once, locking your body into a stable, compression-style position.",[11,1138,1139],{},"Setters love a gaston because it forces a specific body shape and stops people from using their preferred, stronger pulling muscles. On a board climb you will often spot one where a hold is oriented so the only sensible way to engage it is to press.",[15,1141,1143],{"id":1142},"how-to-make-it-work","How to make it work",[11,1145,1146],{},"Gastons feel weak because they load your shoulder and the smaller stabilising muscles rather than the big pulling chain of your back and biceps. There is no getting around the fact that they ask for shoulder strength and good positioning. But technique makes a huge difference.",[11,1148,1149],{},"Keep your elbow out and up, roughly in line with the hold, so the force runs cleanly from your hand through your shoulder. Engage your shoulder before you commit your weight, a loose, relaxed shoulder will collapse the moment you load it. Then use your feet aggressively. The more weight you can keep on your feet, the less the gaston has to hold, and a good high foot or a flagged leg often turns a desperate press into a comfortable one.",[11,1151,1152],{},"Body tension ties it all together. A gaston works best when your whole body is taut and braced, so the push at your hand is supported by tension running through your core down to your feet. Go limp and the position falls apart.",[11,1154,1155],{},"So the next time you find an edge facing the wrong way and your instinct to pull is getting you nowhere, try pushing. Thumb down, elbow out, press it like a lift door. The gaston is unglamorous and a little uncomfortable, but it unsticks sequences that nothing else will.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":1157},[1158,1159,1160],{"id":1105,"depth":72,"text":1106},{"id":1118,"depth":72,"text":1119},{"id":1142,"depth":72,"text":1143},"2024-07-26","The hold you push sideways like opening a lift door — when it appears and how to use it.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1688487292578-bfe97c4109f2?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","Alessandro De Marco","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@demarcale",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-a-gaston",{"title":1097,"description":1162},"blog\u002Fwhat-is-a-gaston",[94,95,1171],"technique","N84ewHwb24d8b8KBxWJQagFJnfrMeGHuP7ELhGN_Zik",{"id":1174,"title":1175,"author":6,"body":1176,"category":77,"date":1332,"description":1333,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":1334,"imageAlt":1335,"imageCredit":1336,"imageCreditUrl":1337,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1338,"navigation":88,"path":1339,"readTime":1340,"seo":1341,"stem":1342,"tags":1343,"__hash__":1344},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-beta-really-means.md","What “beta” really means",{"type":8,"value":1177,"toc":1324},[1178,1181,1185,1188,1191,1197,1201,1204,1236,1239,1243,1246,1255,1259,1262,1265,1268,1285,1298,1302,1308,1311,1315,1318,1321],[11,1179,1180],{},"Stand near any bouldering wall for ten minutes and you will hear the word a dozen times. \"What's the beta on this one?\" \"I've got beta for you.\" \"That's not the beta, watch this.\" For a brand new climber it sounds like jargon dropped in to make the sport feel like a club you are not in yet. In fact beta is one of the most useful concepts in climbing, and once you understand what it really covers, you will use it constantly and understand the social rules around it.",[15,1182,1184],{"id":1183},"so-what-is-beta","So what is beta",[11,1186,1187],{},"At its simplest, beta is information about how to do a climb. The sequence of moves, which hand goes where, where the hidden foothold is, how to grip a particular hold, the trick that makes a baffling section suddenly make sense. If someone tells you \"left hand to the crimp, then bump your right foot up and span to the sloper,\" they have given you the beta.",[11,1189,1190],{},"The word is thought to come from videotape footage of climbs being passed around, \"beta\" as in Betamax, so climbers could study the moves before trying them. Whatever the origin, it stuck, and now it covers any information that helps you climb something.",[1192,1193,1194],"blockquote",{},[11,1195,1196],{},"Beta is not cheating and it is not weakness. It is shared knowledge, and climbing has always been a sport where people freely tell each other how the moves go.",[15,1198,1200],{"id":1199},"beta-is-broader-than-just-the-moves","Beta is broader than just the moves",[11,1202,1203],{},"Most people think beta means the sequence of hand and foot moves, and that is the core of it. But climbers use the word more loosely than that, and it helps to know the range:",[36,1205,1206,1212,1218,1224,1230],{},[39,1207,1208,1211],{},[119,1209,1210],{},"Move beta",", the actual sequence of hands and feet through a problem",[39,1213,1214,1217],{},[119,1215,1216],{},"Hold beta",", how to use a specific hold, the best part to grab, which way to pull",[39,1219,1220,1223],{},[119,1221,1222],{},"Body beta",", where to put your hips, when to flag, how to stay tight",[39,1225,1226,1229],{},[119,1227,1228],{},"Conditions beta",", whether a crag is in good nick, when to go, what the weather does to it",[39,1231,1232,1235],{},[119,1233,1234],{},"Approach beta",", how to find the crag, where to park, how long the walk in is",[11,1237,1238],{},"So when someone at the crag asks for \"the beta,\" they might mean the moves, or they might mean the whole package of useful local knowledge. Context tells you which.",[15,1240,1242],{"id":1241},"beta-is-personal","Beta is personal",[11,1244,1245],{},"Here is the thing that takes a while to learn: beta is not one fixed answer. The sequence that works perfectly for a tall climber with long arms can be useless for a shorter one, who needs an extra intermediate hold to bridge a reach. A flexible climber might rest a heel up high where a stiffer climber cannot. Someone with strong fingers might crimp a hold that someone else has to use open-handed.",[11,1247,1248,1249,1254],{},"This means you should treat offered beta as a suggestion, not gospel. Try it, but if it does not fit your body, do not assume you are failing. You might just need different beta. Some of the best climbing problem-solving happens when you ignore the \"standard\" sequence and find a way that suits you. The skill of working this out for yourself is genuinely worth developing, and ",[1250,1251,1253],"a",{"href":1252},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-read-a-route-before-you-leave-the-ground","reading a route before you leave the ground"," is a good place to start.",[15,1256,1258],{"id":1257},"the-etiquette-of-giving-beta","The etiquette of giving beta",[11,1260,1261],{},"This is the part nobody writes down but everyone is judged by. There is an unwritten code around offering beta, and getting it wrong is one of the quicker ways to annoy people at the wall.",[11,1263,1264],{},"The golden rule: do not give unsolicited beta. If someone is working a problem, trying hard, and visibly enjoying the puzzle of it, shouting the sequence at them robs them of the best part. Lots of climbers want to figure things out for themselves, and \"spraying beta\" at someone who did not ask is poor form. Wait until they ask, or at least offer rather than insist: \"do you want a tip, or are you working it out?\"",[11,1266,1267],{},"A few sensible guidelines:",[36,1269,1270,1273,1276,1279,1282],{},[39,1271,1272],{},"Ask before you tell, every time",[39,1274,1275],{},"If someone is clearly enjoying the process, leave them to it",[39,1277,1278],{},"Keep it brief and let them try it rather than narrating every move",[39,1280,1281],{},"Respect that your beta might not suit their body, and say so",[39,1283,1284],{},"Never imply someone is daft for not seeing it",[11,1286,1287,1288,1292,1293,1297],{},"There is more on the social side of all this in ",[1250,1289,1291],{"href":1290},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-unwritten-rules-of-the-bouldering-mat","the unwritten rules of the bouldering mat"," and ",[1250,1294,1296],{"href":1295},"\u002Fblog\u002Fgym-etiquette-every-new-climber-should-know","gym etiquette every new climber should know",".",[15,1299,1301],{"id":1300},"beta-and-how-you-climb","Beta and how you climb",[11,1303,1304,1305,1297],{},"Knowing the beta changes what your send counts as, which is why the word crops up alongside terms like flash and onsight. If you complete a climb first try with the beta already in your pocket, having watched someone or been told the moves, that is a flash. If you do it first try with no prior information at all, working it out as you go, that is an onsight, which is generally held in higher regard precisely because you had no beta. The full breakdown is in ",[1250,1306,1307],{"href":181},"flash, onsight, redpoint, send styles explained",[11,1309,1310],{},"So beta is not just a tip, it is part of how climbers describe the quality of an ascent. Doing something with full beta is a perfectly good send. Doing it cold, reading it yourself on the fly, is a different and rarer achievement.",[15,1312,1314],{"id":1313},"using-beta-well-as-you-learn","Using beta well as you learn",[11,1316,1317],{},"For a newer climber, beta is a brilliant learning tool if you use it actively rather than passively. When someone shows you a sequence, do not just copy it move for move. Ask why it works. Why does the left hand go first? What does the flag stop from happening? Understanding the reasoning teaches you to read climbs yourself, which is the long game.",[11,1319,1320],{},"And get comfortable both asking for and offering beta, because the give and take of it is a big part of why climbing is such a friendly sport. Standing under a problem with a couple of strangers, all chipping in ideas about how the crux might go, is one of the small pleasures of the wall. You arrived not knowing each other and ten minutes later you are collectively solving a puzzle.",[11,1322,1323],{},"Beta, in the end, is just climbers helping each other up. It covers the moves, the holds, the conditions and the local know-how, it is always personal to the body using it, and it comes with a quiet code about asking before you tell. Learn to read it, share it, and most importantly to question it and find what works for you. Do that and you will not only climb harder, you will slot neatly into the most generous part of climbing culture.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":1325},[1326,1327,1328,1329,1330,1331],{"id":1183,"depth":72,"text":1184},{"id":1199,"depth":72,"text":1200},{"id":1241,"depth":72,"text":1242},{"id":1257,"depth":72,"text":1258},{"id":1300,"depth":72,"text":1301},{"id":1313,"depth":72,"text":1314},"2024-01-19","Beta is the most-used word at any wall, but it covers more than you think. Here is what climbers actually mean by it, and how to use it well.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1766955049104-8db0cd0be342?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A jagged rock formation against blue sky","Ryan Franco","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@weekendw0rrier",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-beta-really-means",6,{"title":1175,"description":1333},"blog\u002Fwhat-beta-really-means",[94,95,1006,96],"yf0lYoRv9dc6XW4dzz70cgXk8l7FtHu0fJemCo1AoIA",{"id":1346,"title":1347,"author":6,"body":1348,"category":77,"date":1456,"description":1457,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":1458,"imageAlt":1459,"imageCredit":1460,"imageCreditUrl":1461,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1462,"navigation":88,"path":1463,"readTime":1340,"seo":1464,"stem":1465,"tags":1466,"__hash__":1468},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fflash-send-and-redpoint-explained.md","Flash, send and redpoint, explained",{"type":8,"value":1349,"toc":1450},[1350,1353,1356,1360,1363,1366,1371,1375,1382,1393,1396,1416,1420,1426,1429,1437,1441,1444,1447],[11,1351,1352],{},"You finish a climb, drop to the mat, and your mate asks \"did you flash it?\" and you have no idea what they mean. So you nod, vaguely, and resolve to look it up later. It is one of those bits of climbing language that everyone seems to have absorbed by osmosis, and that nobody explains, partly because the words are simple and partly because the etiquette around them is not. Here is the whole thing, plainly.",[11,1354,1355],{},"The core idea is that in climbing, how you did a climb matters as much as whether you did it. The grade tells you the difficulty. These words tell you the style, and style is what climbers actually talk about.",[15,1357,1359],{"id":1358},"send-the-umbrella-word","Send: the umbrella word",[11,1361,1362],{},"\"Send\" is the broadest of the lot. To send a climb is to complete it cleanly, from the start to the finish, without falling or resting on the rope or otherwise cheating the difficulty. On a boulder problem it means you started at the proper start, did every move, and topped out or held the final hold under control. On a rope it means you climbed from the ground to the anchor without weighting the rope.",[11,1364,1365],{},"The word probably comes from \"send it\", the encouragement you hear shouted at someone about to commit to a hard move. It has become the catch-all term for success. When someone says they sent their project, they mean they finally did it clean. It does not, on its own, say anything about how many tries it took, and that is where the other words come in.",[1192,1367,1368],{},[11,1369,1370],{},"A send is a send, but climbers are nosy about style. The first question after \"did you send\" is almost always \"how\", because the how is the interesting part.",[15,1372,1374],{"id":1373},"flash-and-onsight-doing-it-first-go","Flash and onsight: doing it first go",[11,1376,1377,1378,1381],{},"A ",[119,1379,1380],{},"flash"," is sending a climb on your very first attempt, but with prior knowledge. You watched someone else do it, you got beta, you knew the sequence going in, and you executed it first try. It is a genuinely impressive thing because you have to read, remember and perform without any practice on the actual moves.",[11,1383,1384,1385,1388,1389,1392],{},"An ",[119,1386,1387],{},"onsight"," is the purest version of a first-go ascent. You climb it first try with no prior knowledge at all: you have never seen anyone on it, nobody has told you the beta, you have no idea what is coming. You read it as you go, on sight. Onsighting is prized because it tests everything at once, your strength, your route-reading and your nerve, with no safety net of foreknowledge. The distinction between these two comes down entirely to information, and ",[1250,1390,1391],{"href":1339},"what beta really means"," explains the currency they trade in.",[11,1394,1395],{},"To keep them straight:",[36,1397,1398,1404,1410],{},[39,1399,1400,1403],{},[119,1401,1402],{},"Onsight:"," first try, no beta, no prior knowledge. The hardest and most respected.",[39,1405,1406,1409],{},[119,1407,1408],{},"Flash:"," first try, but you had beta or watched it first.",[39,1411,1412,1415],{},[119,1413,1414],{},"Send:"," completed clean, any number of attempts.",[15,1417,1419],{"id":1418},"redpoint-the-climb-you-had-to-work-for","Redpoint: the climb you had to work for",[11,1421,1377,1422,1425],{},[119,1423,1424],{},"redpoint"," is sending a climb after practising it, often over many attempts or many sessions. You fall off, you rehearse the moves, you work out the sequence, you rest and come back, and eventually you put it all together in one clean go from bottom to top. Most hard climbs get done as redpoints, because anything near your limit usually takes work.",[11,1427,1428],{},"The word has a nice bit of history. It comes from the German \"rotpunkt\", coined at the Frankenjura crags, where climbers would paint a red mark at the base of a route they had practised and then climbed cleanly. The red point meant \"done properly, in one push, no resting on gear\". That ethic, that the whole climb has to be linked in a single clean ascent, is what redpoint still means today.",[11,1430,1431,1432,1436],{},"A redpoint is no less of a send than a flash. It is just a different style. Many of the proudest ascents in climbing are long-fought redpoints that took weeks or years. The difference between a project you are still working and the moment it becomes a send is one of the most satisfying transitions in the sport, and ",[1250,1433,1435],{"href":1434},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-difference-between-a-project-and-a-problem","the difference between a project and a problem"," digs into that.",[15,1438,1440],{"id":1439},"why-any-of-this-matters","Why any of this matters",[11,1442,1443],{},"You could ask why climbers bother with all this vocabulary when \"I climbed it\" would do. The answer is that the style of an ascent is most of the story. Onsighting a route says something very different about your climbing than redpointing the same route after thirty tries, even though the grade is identical. The words let climbers describe their experience precisely and honestly, and honesty about style is a point of pride.",[11,1445,1446],{},"There is also a quiet etiquette here. Claiming a flash when you had quietly watched someone do it, or calling something a send when you grabbed a draw on the way up, is frowned on. Nobody is checking, but climbers generally hold themselves to the standard because the whole value of the words depends on them being used truthfully.",[11,1448,1449],{},"So next time someone asks if you flashed it, you can answer properly. Maybe it was an onsight, maybe a flash, maybe a hard-won redpoint after six sessions of cursing. All three are good. The grade is just a number. The style is the bit worth talking about over a brew afterwards, and now you have the words for it.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":1451},[1452,1453,1454,1455],{"id":1358,"depth":72,"text":1359},{"id":1373,"depth":72,"text":1374},{"id":1418,"depth":72,"text":1419},{"id":1439,"depth":72,"text":1440},"2023-11-17","The words climbers use for how a climb was done, what each one really means, and why the style of an ascent matters as much as the grade.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1602680119188-b11c64f03752?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A mountain silhouette under blue sky","Dmitry Sumskoy","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@sumskoydmitry",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fflash-send-and-redpoint-explained",{"title":1347,"description":1457},"blog\u002Fflash-send-and-redpoint-explained",[94,95,1006,1467,1424],"send","phQ9nf-_8b1BfdfduCeNoa7w_8JqiTkm3muT94WzpXI",{"id":1470,"title":1471,"author":6,"body":1472,"category":77,"date":1677,"description":1678,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":1679,"imageAlt":1680,"imageCredit":1681,"imageCreditUrl":1682,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1683,"navigation":88,"path":1684,"readTime":182,"seo":1685,"stem":1686,"tags":1687,"__hash__":1689},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fopen-hand-crimp-and-the-grips-in-between.md","Open hand, crimp and the grips in between",{"type":8,"value":1473,"toc":1670},[1474,1477,1480,1484,1487,1507,1510,1514,1517,1595,1598,1603,1607,1610,1618,1622,1625,1646,1649,1653,1656,1667],[11,1475,1476],{},"For something so central to climbing, the way we hold on is weirdly under-discussed. New climbers tend to grab everything the same way, usually a tense, knuckle-bent grip that feels secure and quietly wrecks their fingers over time. The truth is there is a whole vocabulary of grips, each suited to a different shape of hold, and learning which is which does two things. It makes you climb harder, and it keeps your fingers in one piece for the long haul.",[11,1478,1479],{},"Let us name the grips, explain what they do, and clear up the jargon that gets thrown around.",[15,1481,1483],{"id":1482},"the-main-grips-named","The main grips, named",[11,1485,1486],{},"There are really three families of grip, with a couple of useful variations. The names refer to what your fingers are doing, not the hold itself.",[36,1488,1489,1495,1501],{},[39,1490,1491,1494],{},[119,1492,1493],{},"Open hand (or open three-drag)."," Your fingers are nearly straight, draping over the hold with very little bend at the knuckles. The load spreads across the tendons gently. This is the grip for slopers, big rounded holds and most outdoor edges.",[39,1496,1497,1500],{},[119,1498,1499],{},"Half crimp."," The big knuckles bend to around ninety degrees, the fingertips press down, but your thumb stays off. Strong, versatile, and the workhorse grip for edges of all sizes.",[39,1502,1503,1506],{},[119,1504,1505],{},"Full crimp."," Like the half crimp but you wrap your thumb over the top of your index finger for extra power. The most forceful grip you have, and the hardest on your finger joints and tendons.",[11,1508,1509],{},"Between open hand and half crimp sits a continuum, and most climbing happens somewhere along it rather than at the extremes. The skill is choosing where on that line to sit for a given hold.",[15,1511,1513],{"id":1512},"what-each-grip-is-for","What each grip is for",[11,1515,1516],{},"Matching grip to hold is the whole game, and getting it wrong is one of the more common reasons people get gripped and pump out.",[1518,1519,1520,1536],"table",{},[1521,1522,1523],"thead",{},[1524,1525,1526,1530,1533],"tr",{},[1527,1528,1529],"th",{},"Hold type",[1527,1531,1532],{},"Best grip",[1527,1534,1535],{},"Why",[1537,1538,1539,1551,1562,1573,1584],"tbody",{},[1524,1540,1541,1545,1548],{},[1542,1543,1544],"td",{},"Sloper, rounded blob",[1542,1546,1547],{},"Open hand",[1542,1549,1550],{},"Maximises skin contact and friction",[1524,1552,1553,1556,1559],{},[1542,1554,1555],{},"Decent edge",[1542,1557,1558],{},"Half crimp",[1542,1560,1561],{},"Strong without overloading the joints",[1524,1563,1564,1567,1570],{},[1542,1565,1566],{},"Tiny crimp you must hold",[1542,1568,1569],{},"Full crimp",[1542,1571,1572],{},"Most force, used sparingly",[1524,1574,1575,1578,1581],{},[1542,1576,1577],{},"Pocket (one to three fingers)",[1542,1579,1580],{},"Open hand or half crimp",[1542,1582,1583],{},"Spreads load, protects tendons",[1524,1585,1586,1589,1592],{},[1542,1587,1588],{},"Big jug",[1542,1590,1591],{},"Whatever is comfy",[1542,1593,1594],{},"It is a jug, relax and shake out",[11,1596,1597],{},"The thing worth burning into memory is that the full crimp is powerful but expensive. It puts the most strain on the small pulleys in your fingers, the bits that go ping when people get a finger injury. Use it when a hold genuinely demands it, not as your default for everything.",[1192,1599,1600],{},[11,1601,1602],{},"If you grab every hold in a full crimp out of habit, you are spending your finger health on holds that did not need it. Learn to default to open hand and half crimp, and save the full crimp for when nothing else will do.",[15,1604,1606],{"id":1605},"the-open-hand-habit","The open hand habit",[11,1608,1609],{},"If you take one thing away, make it this: train yourself to default to the open hand. New climbers almost universally over-crimp because the bent-knuckle grip feels more secure on small holds. It is more secure, in the short term. But it loads your fingers hardest, fatigues fast, and is the riskiest grip for the kind of slow, nagging injuries that sideline people for months.",[11,1611,1612,1613,1617],{},"The open hand feels weaker at first because, frankly, it is weaker until you build it. But it is far kinder to your tendons and it transfers brilliantly to outdoor rock, where slopers and rounded holds reward an open grip. Spend a few sessions deliberately holding things more open than feels natural and you will build the strength while protecting your fingers. Our piece on ",[1250,1614,1616],{"href":1615},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffinger-strength-without-the-injuries","finger strength without the injuries"," goes deeper on building that base safely.",[15,1619,1621],{"id":1620},"pockets-pinches-and-the-awkward-ones","Pockets, pinches and the awkward ones",[11,1623,1624],{},"A few grips do not fit the open-to-crimp line neatly:",[1626,1627,1628,1634,1640],"ol",{},[39,1629,1630,1633],{},[119,1631,1632],{},"Pockets."," Holds with a hole you slot one, two or three fingers into. The fewer fingers, the more each one is loaded, so two and three-finger pockets are kinder than the brutal single-finger \"mono\". Spread the load when you can and warm up thoroughly before pulling hard on them.",[39,1635,1636,1639],{},[119,1637,1638],{},"Pinches."," Holds you squeeze between fingers and thumb. The thumb does real work here, and pinch strength is its own thing you can train. Common on volumes indoors and on certain outdoor features.",[39,1641,1642,1645],{},[119,1643,1644],{},"Gastons."," Not a grip exactly, but worth knowing. A gaston is when you push out against a hold with your elbow flared, like prising open a lift door. The fingers are often in a half-crimp, but the body position is what makes it a gaston.",[11,1647,1648],{},"You will meet all of these as you climb more, and the jargon stops sounding mysterious once you have actually used the grip on the wall.",[15,1650,1652],{"id":1651},"building-the-habit-on-the-wall","Building the habit on the wall",[11,1654,1655],{},"Knowing the names is step one. Making the right grip automatic takes deliberate practice. A simple way to work on it:",[36,1657,1658,1661,1664],{},[39,1659,1660],{},"On your warm-up, consciously name the grip you are using on each hold. Out loud or in your head, \"open hand, half crimp, jug\". It sounds daft but it builds awareness fast.",[39,1662,1663],{},"Pick an easy traverse and climb it forcing yourself to use open hand on everything, even holds you would normally crimp. It will feel weird and that is the point.",[39,1665,1666],{},"When you do reach for a full crimp, notice it. If you find you are full-crimping a hold that did not need it, file that away.",[11,1668,1669],{},"Over a few weeks this stops being effortful and becomes how you climb. You will find you naturally drape an open hand over the rounded stuff and reserve the crimp for when it is truly required. That habit is one of the quiet markers of an experienced climber, and it is the difference between fingers that last decades and fingers that keep letting you down. Hold on cleverly, not just hard, and your climbing will go further in every sense.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":1671},[1672,1673,1674,1675,1676],{"id":1482,"depth":72,"text":1483},{"id":1512,"depth":72,"text":1513},{"id":1605,"depth":72,"text":1606},{"id":1620,"depth":72,"text":1621},{"id":1651,"depth":72,"text":1652},"2023-09-15","A plain-English glossary of how climbers hold on, from open hand to full crimp, and when to reach for each grip to climb harder and stay healthy.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1570642503856-55972f7fb58a?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A close-up of climbing hands","Elahe Motamedi","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@elahemotamedi",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fopen-hand-crimp-and-the-grips-in-between",{"title":1471,"description":1678},"blog\u002Fopen-hand-crimp-and-the-grips-in-between",[94,95,1006,1688,1171],"fingers","r2hWDVsshpAhrA7a_LgAdifuWrX4L_IcyZdfZMd38Bc",{"id":1691,"title":1692,"author":6,"body":1693,"category":77,"date":1863,"description":1864,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":1865,"imageAlt":1866,"imageCredit":1867,"imageCreditUrl":1868,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":1869,"navigation":88,"path":1870,"readTime":182,"seo":1871,"stem":1872,"tags":1873,"__hash__":1874},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fheel-hooks-toe-hooks-and-the-bicycle-decoded.md","Heel hooks, toe hooks and the bicycle, decoded",{"type":8,"value":1694,"toc":1853},[1695,1698,1702,1705,1713,1718,1722,1725,1728,1742,1749,1753,1756,1759,1762,1766,1769,1818,1821,1826,1829,1843,1846,1850],[11,1696,1697],{},"Watch a strong climber on a steep boulder and you will notice their feet doing things that look more like a gymnastics routine than walking. A heel clamped over a hold, a toe hooked behind a volume, both feet pinching a single rib of rock. To a newer climber it can look like showing off. It is actually the opposite. These tricks are how good climbers stop themselves from swinging off steep ground, and they save an enormous amount of arm strength. Here is what the three big ones are and when to reach for them.",[15,1699,1701],{"id":1700},"why-your-feet-matter-most-on-steep-ground","Why your feet matter most on steep ground",[11,1703,1704],{},"On a slab or a vertical wall, your feet mostly hold your weight and your hands keep you balanced. Tip the wall back past vertical and everything changes. Now gravity is trying to peel you off the rock and swing your hips out into space. Your arms can fight that, but arms tire fast. Your feet, used cleverly, can hold you in without you noticing the effort.",[11,1706,1707,1708,1712],{},"That is the whole point of heel hooks, toe hooks and the bicycle. They are not flashy extras, they are the difference between staying on the wall in control and barn-dooring off it. If you are still getting comfortable on overhangs, our piece on ",[1250,1709,1711],{"href":1710},"\u002Fblog\u002Ftoe-hooks-for-steep-climbing","toe hooks for steep climbing"," pairs nicely with this one.",[1192,1714,1715],{},[11,1716,1717],{},"On steep ground your feet are not just for standing on. They are anchors, and a good hook does the work that would otherwise blow up your arms.",[15,1719,1721],{"id":1720},"the-heel-hook","The heel hook",[11,1723,1724],{},"A heel hook is exactly what it sounds like. You place your heel on top of, or to the side of, a hold and pull with it, almost like a third hand. The power comes from your hamstring and your whole leg, which is far stronger than your fingers.",[11,1726,1727],{},"When to use one:",[36,1729,1730,1733,1736,1739],{},[39,1731,1732],{},"To pull yourself into the wall on a steep move so your hips stay close to the rock.",[39,1734,1735],{},"To take weight off your arms while you reach for the next hold, especially on a long move.",[39,1737,1738],{},"To stop a swing when one hand comes off, by anchoring the heel out to the side.",[39,1740,1741],{},"To rock up onto a high foot when there is nothing to push off below.",[11,1743,1744,1745,1297],{},"The common mistake is being timid with it. A heel hook only works if you commit and actually pull with the leg, engaging your hamstring rather than just resting the heel there. Place the heel precisely, point your toes the way that loads the hook, and pull as if your leg is an arm. There is more on this in ",[1250,1746,1748],{"href":1747},"\u002Fblog\u002Fheel-hooks-when-to-use-them-and-how","heel hooks, when to use them and how",[15,1750,1752],{"id":1751},"the-toe-hook","The toe hook",[11,1754,1755],{},"If a heel hook pulls down and in, a toe hook pulls the opposite way. You hook the top of your toes, the laces side of your shoe, behind or under a hold and pull towards yourself. It uses the front of your shin and the top of your foot, and it is the move that keeps you from swinging out on a roof.",[11,1757,1758],{},"Toe hooks shine on the steepest ground. On a roof or a big overhang, a toe hook on a distant hold or volume stops your lower half from cutting loose and penduluming off into space. They are also brilliant in combination with a heel hook on the other foot, where one foot pulls one way and one pulls the other, locking your body in place.",[11,1760,1761],{},"The trick with toe hooks is rubber and tension. You need the top of your shoe pressed actively against the rock and your core switched on to keep the pull alive. A floppy, half-hearted toe hook does nothing.",[15,1763,1765],{"id":1764},"the-bicycle","The bicycle",[11,1767,1768],{},"The bicycle is the clever one, and it confuses people the first time they hear the name. It is a toe hook and a foot press working together on the same hold or the same pair of holds, with one foot pushing and the other pulling, like a foot clamp.",[1518,1770,1771,1784],{},[1521,1772,1773],{},[1524,1774,1775,1778,1781],{},[1527,1776,1777],{},"Move",[1527,1779,1780],{},"What it does",[1527,1782,1783],{},"Best for",[1537,1785,1786,1796,1807],{},[1524,1787,1788,1790,1793],{},[1542,1789,916],{},[1542,1791,1792],{},"Pulls you in and up",[1542,1794,1795],{},"Big reaches, mantles, stopping swings",[1524,1797,1798,1801,1804],{},[1542,1799,1800],{},"Toe hook",[1542,1802,1803],{},"Stops you swinging out",[1542,1805,1806],{},"Roofs and steep overhangs",[1524,1808,1809,1812,1815],{},[1542,1810,1811],{},"Bicycle",[1542,1813,1814],{},"Clamps a hold from two sides",[1542,1816,1817],{},"Holding a steep foothold with no opposition",[11,1819,1820],{},"Picture a single foothold sticking out from a steep wall. One foot toe-hooks the underside and pulls up, while the other foot presses down on the top. The two forces pinch the hold between them, and suddenly a foot that would have skated off is locked solid. It feels strange the first few times, almost like your feet are doing a handshake, but once it clicks it unlocks moves that felt impossible.",[1822,1823,1825],"h3",{"id":1824},"practising-the-three","Practising the three",[11,1827,1828],{},"You will not learn these by reading about them, only by drilling them on easy ground where the stakes are low.",[36,1830,1831,1834,1837,1840],{},[39,1832,1833],{},"Find a steep board or overhanging panel and pick moves well below your limit.",[39,1835,1836],{},"Deliberately use a heel hook even where you would not need one, just to feel it bite.",[39,1838,1839],{},"Hunt out toe hooks on volumes and practise keeping your foot pressed hard.",[39,1841,1842],{},"Try a bicycle on any foothold that sticks out, even if the move does not demand it.",[11,1844,1845],{},"Doing easy moves with deliberate, fussy footwork teaches your body the positions, so when a hard problem forces one on you, it does not feel alien.",[15,1847,1849],{"id":1848},"let-your-feet-do-the-talking","Let your feet do the talking",[11,1851,1852],{},"The fastest way to climb harder on steep ground is rarely more finger strength. It is learning to trust your feet. A confident heel hook, a switched-on toe hook and a well-timed bicycle take huge amounts of load off your arms and let you climb things that would otherwise spit you off. So next time you are on an overhang and your arms are screaming, look down. The hold that saves you is probably under your feet, waiting for you to use it properly.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":1854},[1855,1856,1857,1858,1862],{"id":1700,"depth":72,"text":1701},{"id":1720,"depth":72,"text":1721},{"id":1751,"depth":72,"text":1752},{"id":1764,"depth":72,"text":1765,"children":1859},[1860],{"id":1824,"depth":1861,"text":1825},3,{"id":1848,"depth":72,"text":1849},"2023-07-14","A plain-English guide to the three foot tricks that turn steep climbing from a flailing battle into something that actually works.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1708290397211-8413855682a2?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A climber sitting with their shoes on","Chaewool Kim","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@koreandirtbag",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fheel-hooks-toe-hooks-and-the-bicycle-decoded",{"title":1692,"description":1864},"blog\u002Fheel-hooks-toe-hooks-and-the-bicycle-decoded",[94,95,1006,1171],"PO8eXd2Wtj6lG9S4W1W8i6GjZOMjdlHWvDj5hIfjFsY",{"id":1876,"title":1877,"author":6,"body":1878,"category":77,"date":2073,"description":2074,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":2075,"imageAlt":2076,"imageCredit":2077,"imageCreditUrl":2078,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":2079,"navigation":88,"path":2080,"readTime":1340,"seo":2081,"stem":2082,"tags":2083,"__hash__":2085},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fdynos-deadpoints-and-the-language-of-movement.md","Dynos, deadpoints and the language of movement",{"type":8,"value":1879,"toc":2066},[1880,1883,1886,1890,1893,1900,1903,1907,1910,1913,1918,1925,1929,1932,1935,1949,1952,1956,1959,2044,2050,2054,2057,2060,2063],[11,1881,1882],{},"Stand under a boulder problem with a few experienced climbers and you will hear a whole vocabulary fly past. \"Deadpoint to the pinch, then a little pop to the jug.\" Someone else reckons it goes \"static if you drop-knee, otherwise it's a campus to the lip.\" If you are newer to all this, it sounds like a foreign language with the occasional English word thrown in to confuse you.",[11,1884,1885],{},"It is a foreign language, in a way, but a small and learnable one. Most of it describes one thing: how you move between holds, and specifically how much momentum you use to do it. Once you understand the spectrum from fully static to fully dynamic, the rest of the words slot into place around it.",[15,1887,1889],{"id":1888},"the-static-to-dynamic-spectrum","The static to dynamic spectrum",[11,1891,1892],{},"Everything in this vocabulary lives on a single line. At one end is static movement, where you could pause at any point. At the other is dynamic movement, where momentum does the work and you cannot stop halfway. Almost every move you make is somewhere along that line.",[11,1894,1895,1896,1297],{},"A static move is slow and controlled. You reach, you grab, and if you wanted to you could hold the position frozen, halfway between holds. Static climbing looks calm and looks easy, though holding those positions often takes real strength and tension. There is a whole craft to choosing it, which we get into in ",[1250,1897,1899],{"href":1898},"\u002Fblog\u002Fstatic-or-dynamic-choosing-how-to-move","static or dynamic, choosing how to move",[11,1901,1902],{},"A dynamic move uses speed. You generate momentum from your legs and core, and you ride that momentum to the next hold rather than pulling yourself there slowly. Dynamic moves are often less tiring, because you borrow energy from the swing rather than grinding it out with your arms. The catch is precision: you get one shot to land the hold, and timing matters.",[15,1904,1906],{"id":1905},"the-deadpoint-the-quietly-clever-one","The deadpoint, the quietly clever one",[11,1908,1909],{},"Of all these words, the deadpoint is the most useful and the most misunderstood. It is not a full jump. It is the moment at the very top of an upward movement when you are weightless, hanging for a split second between going up and coming back down.",[11,1911,1912],{},"Picture throwing a ball straight up. At the top of its arc, before it falls, there is an instant where it is barely moving. That is the deadpoint. In climbing, you time your reach so your hand arrives at the target hold exactly at that weightless instant. Because there is no upward or downward force fighting you, you can latch a hold that would feel impossible if you were still being yanked around.",[1192,1914,1915],{},[11,1916,1917],{},"The deadpoint is the difference between snatching at a hold while your body fights you, and placing your hand on it in the one calm moment when nothing is pulling you off.",[11,1919,1920,1921,1297],{},"It is the single most useful dynamic skill for most climbers, far more often relevant than the showy full dyno. We give it a proper look on its own in ",[1250,1922,1924],{"href":1923},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-dead-point-the-most-useful-dynamic-move","the dead point, the most useful dynamic move",[15,1926,1928],{"id":1927},"the-dyno-and-its-cousins","The dyno and its cousins",[11,1930,1931],{},"A dyno, short for dynamic, is the extreme end of the spectrum. It is a full jump where both hands and both feet leave the wall at once, and for a moment you are flying. It is the move that ends up in every climbing video, and it looks far harder than a well-set one usually is.",[11,1933,1934],{},"Dynos come in varieties:",[36,1936,1937,1940,1943,1946],{},[39,1938,1939],{},"A straight dyno launches you vertically to a hold above.",[39,1941,1942],{},"A lateral dyno sends you sideways across a gap.",[39,1944,1945],{},"A double dyno catches the target with both hands together.",[39,1947,1948],{},"A single dyno latches with one hand, then needs a quick match.",[11,1950,1951],{},"There is a sibling worth knowing too. A \"pop\" or \"throw\" is a smaller, gentler dynamic move where your feet usually stay on, but you still use a quick burst of momentum to flick to the next hold. It sits between the deadpoint and the full dyno.",[15,1953,1955],{"id":1954},"a-quick-reference","A quick reference",[11,1957,1958],{},"Here is the spectrum laid out, roughly from least to most committing, with what each move costs you.",[1518,1960,1961,1977],{},[1521,1962,1963],{},[1524,1964,1965,1968,1971,1974],{},[1527,1966,1967],{},"Term",[1527,1969,1970],{},"Feet leave the wall?",[1527,1972,1973],{},"Can you stop halfway?",[1527,1975,1976],{},"Typical use",[1537,1978,1979,1993,2006,2019,2031],{},[1524,1980,1981,1984,1987,1990],{},[1542,1982,1983],{},"Static",[1542,1985,1986],{},"No",[1542,1988,1989],{},"Yes",[1542,1991,1992],{},"Balance, control, precise placements",[1524,1994,1995,1998,2000,2003],{},[1542,1996,1997],{},"Deadpoint",[1542,1999,1986],{},[1542,2001,2002],{},"No, but only a small move",[1542,2004,2005],{},"Reaching a hold just out of static range",[1524,2007,2008,2011,2014,2016],{},[1542,2009,2010],{},"Pop or throw",[1542,2012,2013],{},"Usually no",[1542,2015,1986],{},[1542,2017,2018],{},"Quick flick to the next hold",[1524,2020,2021,2023,2026,2028],{},[1542,2022,938],{},[1542,2024,2025],{},"Yes, all points off",[1542,2027,1986],{},[1542,2029,2030],{},"Big gaps with no static option",[1524,2032,2033,2036,2039,2041],{},[1542,2034,2035],{},"Campus",[1542,2037,2038],{},"Yes, feet only",[1542,2040,1986],{},[1542,2042,2043],{},"Power moves with no footholds",[11,2045,2046,2047,1297],{},"A campus move deserves its own mention. It is a dynamic move done with no feet on the wall at all, hands only, like climbing a ladder by hands alone. It is brutally hard on the fingers and shoulders, and it is also a training method in its own right. More on that in ",[1250,2048,2049],{"href":314},"what is a campus move",[15,2051,2053],{"id":2052},"reading-which-one-a-problem-wants","Reading which one a problem wants",[11,2055,2056],{},"Knowing the words is half of it. The other half is looking at a problem and working out which kind of movement it is asking for. A few clues help.",[11,2058,2059],{},"If the holds are spaced beyond a controlled reach even at full stretch, and there is a big obvious target, the setter probably wants a dynamic move. If the holds are close together but the body positions are awkward and balancey, it likely rewards static, precise climbing. Often a single problem mixes both, static through a delicate section, then a deadpoint or pop to escape it.",[11,2061,2062],{},"The common beginner mistake is throwing for everything, because dynamic moves feel powerful and fun. The opposite mistake, equally common in nervous climbers, is grinding every move out statically and getting pumped because static climbing is more tiring on the arms. The good climbers you watch are constantly choosing, often without thinking, which tool the move wants.",[11,2064,2065],{},"Learning this vocabulary is not about sounding clever under the boulder. It is about being able to name what you are doing, so you can practise it on purpose. Next time you are at the wall, pick one word from this list, deadpoint is a good start, and spend a session deliberately trying to do it well. Naming the move is the first step to owning it.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":2067},[2068,2069,2070,2071,2072],{"id":1888,"depth":72,"text":1889},{"id":1905,"depth":72,"text":1906},{"id":1927,"depth":72,"text":1928},{"id":1954,"depth":72,"text":1955},{"id":2052,"depth":72,"text":2053},"2023-05-12","A plain-English guide to the words climbers use for dynamic movement, from the deadpoint to the full dyno, and what each one actually means on the wall.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1758480378267-a4d7f84332a6?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A climber on a rugged rock face with ropes","Catherine Kalmykova","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@kalmyk",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fdynos-deadpoints-and-the-language-of-movement",{"title":1877,"description":2074},"blog\u002Fdynos-deadpoints-and-the-language-of-movement",[94,95,1006,2084],"movement","q5EIwjS876V94lt5UpW_cbmPbiniROyUU_Co89vmEG0",{"id":2087,"title":2088,"author":6,"body":2089,"category":77,"date":2278,"description":2279,"draft":80,"extension":81,"image":2280,"imageAlt":2281,"imageCredit":2282,"imageCreditUrl":2283,"imageType":86,"mapArea":86,"mapLabel":86,"mapLat":86,"mapLng":86,"mapPath":86,"mapZoom":86,"meta":2284,"navigation":88,"path":1434,"readTime":182,"seo":2285,"stem":2286,"tags":2287,"__hash__":2288},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-difference-between-a-project-and-a-problem.md","The difference between a project and a problem",{"type":8,"value":2090,"toc":2269},[2091,2094,2097,2101,2104,2107,2115,2117,2120,2123,2128,2132,2135,2203,2206,2210,2213,2216,2219,2233,2241,2245,2248,2256,2259,2263,2266],[11,2092,2093],{},"You overhear it within your first week at the wall. Someone points at a line of holds and calls it a problem. Someone else says they have been working their project for a month. They sound like they might mean the same thing, and a lot of the time people use them as if they do. They are related, but they are not interchangeable, and knowing the difference makes the rest of climbing chat click into place.",[11,2095,2096],{},"The short version: a problem is a thing, and a project is a relationship. Let me unpack that, because it actually matters for how you climb.",[15,2098,2100],{"id":2099},"what-a-problem-is","What a problem is",[11,2102,2103],{},"A problem is a single boulder, a set route up a chunk of wall or rock with a defined start and finish. In bouldering, every coloured line of holds at the gym is a problem. Outdoors, every named boulder line in the guidebook is a problem too. The word comes from the idea that each one is a little puzzle of movement to solve.",[11,2105,2106],{},"So a problem is just the climb itself. It exists whether or not you have ever touched it. The graffiti-coloured line on the steep wall is a problem. The classic gritstone arête in the Peak is a problem. Calling something a problem says nothing about your history with it.",[11,2108,2109,2110,2114],{},"If the word \"problem\" still feels fuzzy, or you are mixing it up with routes and pitches, our piece on ",[1250,2111,2113],{"href":2112},"\u002Fblog\u002Fbouldering-sport-trad-the-disciplines-explained","bouldering, sport and trad, the disciplines explained"," lays out where problems sit in the wider climbing picture.",[15,2116,596],{"id":595},[11,2118,2119],{},"A project is a problem you cannot yet do. More than that, it is one you have decided to commit to. The moment you point at something at or above your limit and say \"right, I am going to work this until it goes,\" it becomes your project.",[11,2121,2122],{},"The key ingredients are difficulty and intent. A warm-up is a problem, never a project, because you can already do it. A line three grades above your best is just a problem until you choose to invest in it. Then it is your project, and it stays your project until you send it or give up on it.",[1192,2124,2125],{},[11,2126,2127],{},"A project is not defined by the rock. It is defined by your relationship to it. The same boulder can be a casual tick for one climber and a season-long obsession for another.",[15,2129,2131],{"id":2130},"putting-it-side-by-side","Putting it side by side",[11,2133,2134],{},"Here is the distinction laid out plainly:",[1518,2136,2137,2148],{},[1521,2138,2139],{},[1524,2140,2141,2143,2146],{},[1527,2142],{},[1527,2144,2145],{},"Problem",[1527,2147,826],{},[1537,2149,2150,2161,2172,2181,2192],{},[1524,2151,2152,2155,2158],{},[1542,2153,2154],{},"What it is",[1542,2156,2157],{},"The climb itself",[1542,2159,2160],{},"A climb you are committed to working",[1524,2162,2163,2166,2169],{},[1542,2164,2165],{},"Difficulty",[1542,2167,2168],{},"Any grade",[1542,2170,2171],{},"At or above your limit",[1524,2173,2174,2177,2179],{},[1542,2175,2176],{},"Requires intent",[1542,2178,1986],{},[1542,2180,1989],{},[1524,2182,2183,2186,2189],{},[1542,2184,2185],{},"How long",[1542,2187,2188],{},"N\u002FA, it just exists",[1542,2190,2191],{},"Sessions, weeks, sometimes years",[1524,2193,2194,2197,2200],{},[1542,2195,2196],{},"Example",[1542,2198,2199],{},"\"Nice problem on the slab\"",[1542,2201,2202],{},"\"My project on the steep wall\"",[11,2204,2205],{},"Every project is a problem. Not every problem is a project. That is the whole thing in a sentence.",[15,2207,2209],{"id":2208},"why-the-distinction-is-worth-caring-about","Why the distinction is worth caring about",[11,2211,2212],{},"This is not pedantry for its own sake. The way you treat a project is different from the way you treat an ordinary problem, and confusing the two leads to frustrating sessions.",[11,2214,2215],{},"When you tick through problems, you flow: pull on, climb, top out, move on. You are after volume and movement. When you are projecting, the approach changes completely. You break the climb into sections, work individual moves, rest properly between burns, and accept that you might not link the whole thing for weeks. Throwing yourself at a project the way you cruise through warm-ups is a fast route to wrecked skin and a flat mood.",[11,2217,2218],{},"A few habits that separate good projecting from just flailing:",[36,2220,2221,2224,2227,2230],{},[39,2222,2223],{},"Work the moves in isolation before trying to link them, so you are not always failing low down",[39,2225,2226],{},"Rest long enough between attempts that you give the hard sections a fair shot",[39,2228,2229],{},"Track which moves feel solid and which still feel desperate",[39,2231,2232],{},"Know when to walk away for the day, before your skin and your head are gone",[11,2234,2235,2236,2240],{},"Resting properly between burns is the one most people get wrong. If you tend to rush back on, ",[1250,2237,2239],{"href":2238},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-actually-rest-between-attempts","how to actually rest between attempts"," is worth a read before your next session on something hard.",[1822,2242,2244],{"id":2243},"a-quick-test","A quick test",[11,2246,2247],{},"Not sure whether to call something your project or just a problem you fancy. Ask yourself two questions:",[36,2249,2250,2253],{},[39,2251,2252],{},"Can I already do it? If yes, it is a problem, not a project.",[39,2254,2255],{},"Have I committed to working it over multiple goes or sessions? If no, it is still just a problem you might try.",[11,2257,2258],{},"Only a clear yes to the second and no to the first earns the word project.",[15,2260,2262],{"id":2261},"pick-yours","Pick yours",[11,2264,2265],{},"Most of us climb best with one or two projects on the go, alongside a steady diet of ordinary problems to keep things fun and build volume. Too many projects and you spread yourself thin and tick nothing. None at all and you can drift, ticking easy stuff and never pushing.",[11,2267,2268],{},"So next time you are at the wall, climb your problems, enjoy the flow of them, and then pick one thing that feels just out of reach and make it your project. Name it. Come back to it. Work it properly. The day it finally goes, you will understand exactly why climbers make such a fuss about the word.",{"title":71,"searchDepth":72,"depth":72,"links":2270},[2271,2272,2273,2274,2277],{"id":2099,"depth":72,"text":2100},{"id":595,"depth":72,"text":596},{"id":2130,"depth":72,"text":2131},{"id":2208,"depth":72,"text":2209,"children":2275},[2276],{"id":2243,"depth":1861,"text":2244},{"id":2261,"depth":72,"text":2262},"2023-03-10","Two words climbers use constantly, often interchangeably. Here is what each actually means and when to use them.","https:\u002F\u002Fimages.unsplash.com\u002Fphoto-1615801515500-41decc0804cb?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop&crop=entropy&q=80&auto=format","A person hanging from a wooden training bar","LOGAN WEAVER","https:\u002F\u002Funsplash.com\u002F@lgnwvr",{},{"title":2088,"description":2279},"blog\u002Fthe-difference-between-a-project-and-a-problem",[94,95,1006,570],"-z9FMLwa9nXgg7ja4C8AnRijCf_KwwLh3zYIwM9m2mw",1784277610437]